“Like darkness itself, the dark night of the soul means different things to different people. Some use the phrase to describe the time following a great loss, while others remember it as the time leading up to a difficult decision. Whatever the circumstances, what the stories have in common is their description of a time when the soul was severely tested, often to the point of losing faith, by circumstances beyond all control. No one chose the dark night; the dark night descends. When it does, the reality that troubles the soul most is the apparent absence of God.”
–Barbara Brown Taylor, Learning to Walk in the Dark, p. 134
